Nandi Chinna writes of a room, lit by fluorescent lights, where a team of scientists freeze the tissue of endangered plants for future generations
From the death of old-growth trees at Beeliar Wetlands to securing the seeds of potential trees at Kings Park, her work holds both anticipatory grief and hope for the future. In this episode of the Fremantle Press Podcast, Nandi speaks to Holden Sheppard about her very special brand of peripatetic creativity, which has led to her latest poetry collection, The Future Keepers.
Nandi says people have been walking to stimulate creativity for millennia.
In this interview, she talks about her neologism ‘poepatetics’, the activism that helped save the Beeliar Wetlands (for now), and her journey as a LGBTQIA+ woman of a certain age.
Warning: You’ll want to take a walk and write your own poetry immediately after listening, so get your sneakers and your pens ready.
Music: ‘Letter to a Daughter of St George’, from the Meat Lunch EP: Songs from Floaters. Written by Alan Fyfe. Performed by Trevor Bentley (guitar and vocals – @trevormb) and Chris Parkinson (harmonica). Produced by Blake Carnaby of Nuglife studios with impresario work by Benjamin P. Newton.
Podcast editor: Lata Periakarpan